Chapter Text
As the sun drifted slowly but surely over the horizon, the great city of Zootopia began to awake from its nighttime slumber; if you’d consider any city to be truly asleep during the night, that is. It has been just over a month since Nicholas Wilde moved in with his ZPD partner, best friend, and mate, Judy Hopps. Or to put it more accurately, they had both moved into one apartment that could fit more than just her small bed, nightstand, and desk.
This apartment was much larger in comparison, enough to house a bed fit for two, a couch, coffee table, and a television. It had a small kitchen and an even smaller bathroom. It was home sweet home; especially for Nick, who had been living partly under a bridge like a troll, and having sleepovers with Finnick in has van for the better part of his life. Judy appreciated the additional living space as well. Having grown up with around three hundred siblings, it had always been a rarity to have her own space.
When Nick opened his eyes, he was startled to see a cute little bunny staring back at him. Her eyes widened quickly as she realized he’d caught her in the act of watching him sleep, again. Nick relaxed as he put on his signature smirk that he knew she loved so much. His voice still sounding slow and groggy as it always did in the morning.
“Are you going to be doing this every morning, carrots? Because if so I’m gonna have to start waking up earlier, and you know I need my beauty sleep.”
Judy’s face took on a defensive, (and frankly fake) hurt expression, as her violet eyes twinkled like stars in an attempt to use her cuteness against him. Sly bunny, it always worked.
“Why? Am I not allowed to watch my favorite fox sleep?” It was first thing in the morning and her voice already sounded as though she had downed two cups of coffee. Her peppy attitude was just plain sickening in the morning. And he loved it.
“Favorite fox huh?” He said as he sat up in bed and began to stretch. “Finnick will just be so disappointed to hear that.” A surprised look crept onto her face but was quickly replaced by a confident little smirk.
“Did I say that? I meant my favorite red fox.” She said pointing out the fiery red fur that encompassed most of his body, giving him the appearance of being engulfed in radiant flames, especially when golden sunlight was strewn across his vulpine figure. Looking pretty satisfied, she crossed her arms in a triumphant gesture.
But Nick was one step ahead of her, as his ears flattened and his face contorted into a look of hurt and betrayal.
“That really stings, Judy. And here my aging mother had accepted you with open arms, and now she takes second place?” His voice had taken on a comedic and overly dramatic tone. It gave him great satisfaction to make her squirm, especially this early in the morning.
Judy’s ears shot down immediately and she had a look of bewilderment, which made her look even cuter. Of course, telling her this would insight nonstop arm bombardment from her tiny paws, however, they still really hurt somehow.
As soon as he put on his ‘I win, rabbit’ expression, he found himself being tackled to the floor by a blur of bunny fur. Once they hit the floor with a loud thud, Judy began tickling him with relentless energy and fury.
“C-carrots, stop that, I-I’m ticklish!” She knew this of course, and she loved how it made him holler uncontrollably. It was her favorite way to show him that she was not to be trifled with.
They’d stopped roughhousing after Nick reluctantly tapped out. Satisfied with her handy work of leaving Nick in an out-of-breath heap on the floor, Judy leaned in and planted a kiss on his fox lips to convey an official good morning. He reciprocated the affection and they laid there for what felt like a blissful eternity. And with that she hopped up and walked into the small kitchen to begin brewing the morning coffee, ready to begin their routine day. It took Nick a minute to regain his composure, but he finally sprung up and joined her before they had to get ready for an honest day’s work.
Both Nick and Judy enjoyed watching the ZNN news in the morning. As officers of the ZPD, they had to stay caught up on all of the latest news stories in Zootopia. However, it was relatively the same kinds of stories every day. Random thefts, traffic accidents, homicides, etc. There was even the occasional update to the night howler case that had brought Nick and Judy together about six months ago. Of course, they were usually already ‘in the know’ about recent findings to their first case together. Chief Bogo had personally assigned them to the case in an effort to hunt down Doug, the ram, who had been lost in the wind shortly after Nick and Judy had busted, now ex-Mayor, Bellwether.
However, this morning’s news was no different. The female Cheetah anchor was reporting on the story of a Moose who was dumb enough to try and break into a bank through the main window using only his large antlers; only to fail miserably, managing to break one of them off in the process before running away, leaving the broken antler behind. Suffice to say, it wasn’t difficult for the ZPD to track down a rather large Moose with only one antler.
Nick scoffed at the blatant stupidity of the Moose as he and Judy sat on the couch facing the TV.
“Look at this dumb-dumb. I mean he could have simply used the door for cripes sake.” He said while he was preparing his morning coffee, when Judy gave an outraged response.
“Are you seriously giving a criminal advice on how to be a better criminal!?”
The look of outrage on her face only made him laugh to himself as he held up his paws in defense.
“Hey, what can I say? Old habits.” Her expression softened, but not by much. He lowered his paws and put on a serious look with a professional, yet mocking voice to match.
“I am an officer of the law, remember? But that doesn’t mean I can’t laugh at how stupid a crook is, right?”
Nick was admittedly a little hurt that she might still think so little of him as to imply that he would ever root for the criminal after swearing an oath to serve and protect Zootopia. Her expression went to that of apologetic as her long ears fell flat against her head. Judy knew that her accusation had hurt his feelings. It wasn’t clear on his face, but Judy could read him like an open book at this point in their relationship.
“You’re right. I’m really sorry, Nick.” She said with sincere regret. Judy also knew that Nick would never return to a life of scamming and overall shady activity. He wouldn’t do that to the ZPD, but more prominently, he wouldn’t do that to her. He loved her too much, and she loved him.
“Forgive me?” She said with an apologetic smile. Nick brought back his famous smirk and replied. “There’s nothing to forgive, carrots. Now do me a favor would ya and pass-”
But before Nick could finish asking for her to pass the coffee creamer, the loud ZNN tone sounded on the TV to indicate BREAKING NEWS.
Nick and Judy both gave the TV their full attention as the Male Moose anchor reported on the recent development. The Moose spoke calmly with a smooth, deep voice.
“Long time Zootopia resident Duke Weaselton has been found dead this morning in an alleyway off of Colt bullevard, in Tundra Town.” The camera then switched to an establishing shot of Colt bullevard. It looked just as you’d expect a street in tundra town to appear, snowy with hues of soft blue and white, but this time with harsh red and blue flashing lights sweeping the landscape. The entrance to the alley in question was surrounded by police and EMTs. However, behind all of the police tape, there could be seen an EMT placing a white sheet over a small, weasel-shaped figure lying limp on the cold icy ground.
Judy’s suddenly lost her appetite. Nick sat with an expression of concern as he saw how pale Judy had become. The Moose continued.
“First responders to the 911 call say that Weaselton died of suffocation due to drowning, which leads officials to suspect foul play, taking into consideration where he was found.”
Judy had heard of and seen plenty of homicides by now, but none of them had been anyone she knew. Let alone her first perp. Deep down Judy was grateful to Duke. If it hadn’t been for her pursuit of him after he’d robbed the flower store, she might have never ended up in Bogo’s office, and in turn, she never would have been there to take the Emmitt Otterton case which brought her and Nick together. Not to mention that he’d told them where to find the night howler lab, albeit with some encouragement from their ally, Mr. Big.
Judy felt genuinely sorry for Duke. Despite being despicable, greedy, and a would-be thief, he didn’t deserve this. No one did.
“Who would want to hurt Duke?” Judy said in disbelief.
However, Nick had a pretty good idea, but before he could voice it, his suspicion was confirmed by the news anchor.
“Experts speculate that his death could be in connection with the ongoing night howler investigation, due to Weaselton’s past involvement in the case.”
Judy’s disbelief turned to that of understanding as she caught up with Nick’s train of thought.
Her ears shot up and she hopped off the couch to grab the squad car keys.
“It had to have been Doug!” She exclaimed as she quickly prepared to leave early for the station. They were going to need to get an early start if they had any hope of catching this dirt bag.
Nick agreed it was plausible. Doug kills Weaselton in retaliation for helping them find his night howler lab, which had rendered him a fugitive. But why now, after all this time? Nevertheless, this could be their opportunity to finally bust this twisted ram for everything he’s done.
However, Nick had to remind Judy, as well as himself, to not jump to conclusions just yet.
He stood up and walked in her direction. “Hold on, fluff.” He said in an attempt to calm her down.
“Let’s see what Bogo thinks before we go barging into the station acting like we’ve cracked the case.”
Judy’s energy faltered slightly as she realized he had a good point.
“You’re probably right.” She said in a disappointed tone, ears drooping slightly. He couldn’t stand to see her like this, so he brought back that sly smirk to his face, his green eyes sparkling like clean-cut emeralds in an attempt to make her smile.
“Of course I am.” He said with a ‘full of himself’ attitude.
Her expression changed to that of amused annoyance, and he was rewarded with a smirk, as well as a retort. “Dumb fox.”
They finished eating breakfast before departing for the station. The case still on Judy’s mind as they were en route. Despite not wanting to jump to conclusions, they both knew one thing was certain. If Doug was careless enough to come out of hiding and murder Weaselton, they were going to be the ones to bring him down.